Heretofore, a number of electric box extenders have been marketed by various competing manufacturers such as Bridgeport Fittings, Inc., Arlington Industries, Carlon, Inc. and perhaps others. All of the known or available box extenders are generally similar in construction in that the known box extenders include a circumscribing face plate having rearwardly connected extending sides or wings defining a body portion arranged to be received into an existing installed electric box to form an extension thereof, and whereby the face flange of the box extender is provided with one or more screw openings that are required to be in alignment with the screw opening of the flange or mount of the installed electric box. The prior known electric box extenders are secured to the installed and recessed electrical box by the screws or fasteners that secure the electrical receptacle, e.g. a switch or outlet, to the electric box. Such known extenders are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,134,636; 5,042,673; 5,736,674; 5,117,996; 5,959,246; 6,180,879; 6,204,447; 6,307,154 and 6,369,322.
The prior known electric box extenders are relatively complex in structure, some being formed of several components, e.g. as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,115,265 and 5,042,673. It has also been noted that, frequently, difficulty has been encountered in the installation of the known box extenders due to the requirement of the need to align the various screw openings of the assembled parts for securing the electric box extender to the installed electric box. As a result, the installation of such extenders is tedious and time consuming.
Because of the construction of such prior known electric box extenders, the shipping of such box extenders is cumbersome in that such box extenders, having integrally formed tubular walls, are generally loosely shipped in large cartons or had to be individually packaged in a box to prevent damage in shipment. Such packaging only served to increase the cost of those box extenders having relatively rigid integrally formed walls to the ultimate consumers.